I have some joyous news. I have been in contact with Abune Berhaneyesus D. Souraphiel CM, Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Abeba. I have told him that there are enough congragations to form an eparchy of his Church here in America. The only thing that is holding them back are enough priests. He has put me in touch with Abba Eyob, and hopefully we can get an Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy here in the United States.

Please pray for this endeavor. I hope that in less than 5 years an eparchy will be established.

I certainly would like to see an Ethiopian/Eritrean eparchy established in the US and I don't want to discourage anyone, but ...

I note that the Syro-Malankara have been present in the US on an organized basis for 24 years now. Last I counted, their clergy staff 14-15 functional parishes and missions in the US and Canada, a number that has remained fairly consistent for at least a decade. (And, there are another half-dozen or so served once monthly on average.)

Yet, in that time, the Malankarese have managed to get no more than the appointment of an Apostolic Visitator for its faithful in North America (actually sharing him with the diaspora generally), Rev. Doctor Joseph Mar Thomas, the incumbent, being the second of those.

The Ethiopian/Eritrean presence, though impressive (particularly as regards the Eritreans) is significantly less than that.

There are 22 "active/organized" Eritrean Catholic communities in the US by my count.

Of those, only 3 (Washington, Chicago, Boston) are served weekly. Another 5 (Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, Oakland, Seattle, Denver) are served either once or twice a month - 4 of those by the same circuit-rider, Abba Ghebriel Woldai. The remaining 14 have schedules ranging from once per quarter to "when announced".

There are another 6 in Canada, of which 1 is served weekly, the remaining 5 each being served once a month.

As to the Ethiopians themselves, they have 5 US communities (none in Canada that I've been able to locate), of which 2 (Washington and Boston) are regularly served. The remainder fall into the "when announced" category - except for Dallas, which serves the Uerata Qeddase (Divine Liturgy) on NY Eve, Easter, and (for reasons that are lost on me) once each Autumn - date varies.

"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."

I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to convince the Archdiocese of Dublin to bring - if only just once - the Ethiopian Catholic Priest and some of his musicians and chanters from London to serve the Divine Liturgy here in Dublin. With sufficient preparation and advance publicity, such a service would fill the largest church building in the city, easily. There are lots of African Christians in Dublin, and we are rapidly losing them to various store-front operations. Every time I say this, it falls flat on the floor and dies.

In Rome, there is an Ethiopian Liturgy twice a week - with good clergy and magnificent music, and an absolutely packed church. Last time I was there, the Liturgy was offered in a church near Piazza Navona.

As to the Syro-Malankara Catholic in the USA: there is, of course, the Syrian Catholic Eparchy and their Bishop would probably be happy to visit the Malankara communities from time to time.

The Malankara Church is || close to getting it's official paperwork completed for Eparchial status.. I think the plan is to do it officially for the 25th Year Jubilee!

As to the Syriac Catholics, I've been trying unsuccessfully to have joint events with them - it's difficult to get anyone to respond at the HQ. I think we have a bigger presence in the Eastern half of the US + Texas, while they have a larger presence in California and Florida.

First to let you know, my name spelled Shawn. As to the Ethiopian. I go by the Syriac Catholic Church in America. They have 5 Churches and they are an Eparchy. Therefore, anyone that can equal that should also become an eparchy. Also, by having support of the head of that Church has great benefit.

I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to convince the Archdiocese of Dublin to bring - if only just once - the Ethiopian Catholic Priest and some of his musicians and chanters from London to serve the Divine Liturgy here in Dublin. With sufficient preparation and advance publicity, such a service would fill the largest church building in the city, easily. There are lots of African Christians in Dublin, and we are rapidly losing them to various store-front operations. Every time I say this, it falls flat on the floor and dies.

In Rome, there is an Ethiopian Liturgy twice a week - with good clergy and magnificent music, and an absolutely packed church. Last time I was there, the Liturgy was offered in a church near Piazza Navona.

As to the Syro-Malankara Catholic in the USA: there is, of course, the Syrian Catholic Eparchy and their Bishop would probably be happy to visit the Malankara communities from time to time.

Christ is Risen!

Fr. Serge

Shlomo Abun Serge,

Do what I did the first time. Invite some of the clergy from the Ethiopian College to Dublin. They are more than happy to come.

Having no premises and no jurisdiction over Ethiopians, I can't myself import clergy from the Ethiopian College, or from London, against the wishes of the Latin Archdiocese, much as I might like to. There are only two ways to accomplish this:

a) an initiative from the Archdiocese, or

b) an initiative from the African population here in Dublin - most of whom are not likely to take such an initiative; they are highly sensitive to anything which might offend anyone who could get them either deported or fired.

Come to think of it, there is a hypothetical third possibility: an initiative from the authorities of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. But I have no idea how, or if, that could be stimulated.

Having no premises and no jurisdiction over Ethiopians, I can't myself import clergy from the Ethiopian College, or from London, against the wishes of the Latin Archdiocese, much as I might like to. There are only two ways to accomplish this:

a) an initiative from the Archdiocese, or

b) an initiative from the African population here in Dublin - most of whom are not likely to take such an initiative; they are highly sensitive to anything which might offend anyone who could get them either deported or fired.

Come to think of it, there is a hypothetical third possibility: an initiative from the authorities of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. But I have no idea how, or if, that could be stimulated.

So I keep hoping . . .

Fr. Serge

Shlomo Abun Serge,

Well you can contact the head of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. That is what I did. I can send you his e-mail if you wish.

First to let you know, my name spelled Shawn. As to the Ethiopian. I go by the Syriac Catholic Church in America. They have 5 Churches and they are an Eparchy. Therefore, anyone that can equal that should also become an eparchy. Also, by having support of the head of that Church has great benefit.

Shawn.

My apologies for the misspelling - I racked my brain trying to remember which was correct, and obviously did not.

As to the Syriacs, last I checked, the Eparchy officially had some 8 or 9 parishes and a half-dozen missions (US and Canada combined), although their numbers are difficult to track. As I recollect, there were about 8 when the Eparchy was erected, as well as a sizeable number of faithful worshipping with the Melkites or Maronites for lack of their own churches. (The Syriacs lost, and are unlikely to ever regain, at least two generations of faithful to their sister Churches and their Orthodox counterpart. Those who came to the Maronites and Melkites included several who became priests, identifiable by surnames that are historically unique to the Syriac community.)

The Armenians, of course, have a small number of parishes - but it was years before an eparchy was erected for them.

There is no magic number that produces jurisdictions. Witness the elevation of your Church's first US jurisdiction from exarchate to eparchy in 1971; at the same time (on the same day in fact) that the Maronites and Melkites both had eparchies erected from scratch in Brazil - with a fraction of the number of parishes, presbyters, etc. as were ascribed to the then-Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in Detroit of the Maronites.

As to the support of His Eminence Berhaneyesus, I have some difficulty envisioning that he was not aware of the size of the US community. At least two of the Church's bishops have made pastoral visits to the US diaspora, on a roughly biennial schedule - traveling cross-country to meet with and celebrate for their peoples. Each time, I have expected to see some positive result, but have not as yet. Abba Tesfamarian in DC holds some title suggestive of a relationship with the Metropolitan that would be akin to a patriarchal exarch, but his function appears limited to pastoral care of the DC community.

Meanwhile, in reviewing the Black Ministries of about three dozen US Latin jurisdictions with significant populations of Black American Catholics and/or African Catholic emigrants, I have been struck by the fact that few of these appear to have difficulty obtaining priests to serve other African national and cultural communities - other than the Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Sudanese (missioned by the Eritreans). Those from West, Central, and South African nations, as well as Carribean Black Catholics, are generally well-served pastorally.

"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."

No problem on the name, you are Irish and went with the traditional spelling. My name was going to be spelled SEAN, but my mom in the 60's did not want me to be call SEE-AN.

When the Syriac Eparchy started there were only 5 parishes. There missions have been very successful. Right now they just need to get the parish buildings built.

You are correct about there being no magic numbers to create an Eparchy. What I hope is that by having someone, or some people who will work for this for no benefit of their own, that will help the Archeparch move towards establishing an eparchy.

Abune Berhaneyesus, seems to want to go foreward with this, so the only thing that is a downside is that maybe not in my life time I will not see an Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy in the United States.

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